Noise NOT at work #1: How loud is…attending the Women’s Rugby World Cup bronze and gold matches at Twickenham by Rachel Canham (WBM)

The 2018 World Health Organisation Environmental Noise Guidelines recommend a guideline exposure level of 70dB L_Aeq,24h yearly average from all leisure noise sources combined. The Guidelines give an example: an hourly noise level of 85 dB for 14 hours per week (e.g. 2 hours per day, 7 days a week) would lead to a yearly exposure of 74dB, exceeding the recommendations. WBM decided that it would be interesting to find out how loud leisure/hobby activities are and how readily the WHO guidelines might be exceeded by the “average” person…

We’re starting this series of investigations with a bang; by measuring how loud it was to attend the Women’s Rugby World Cup final matches at Twickenham on 27 September 2025! I wore a dosemeter throughout my attendance at Twickenham for both the bronze (New Zealand v France) and gold (Canada v England) matches. I was sitting in the west stand in the lower block, with a reasonable view of the pitch and rugby action.

The noise levels were mainly due to the near 82k capacity crowd shouting and clapping, along with occasional music/announcements via the Twickenham PA – including a short live set on the pitch from Sophie Lloyd (guitarist) performing a medley of tracks. The second track was Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ On a Prayer’ and you’ve not lived until you’ve heard around 80,000 people singing ‘Oh, we’re half way there…’. This musical interlude did create the highest short term L_Aeq,T values – until England started scoring tries that is!

In answer to the question ‘how loud is…attending the Women’s Rugby World Cup bronze and gold matches at Twickenham’ the answer is an eye-watering 96 dB L_Aeq,T for the near 7 hours I was at the stadium, although subjectively it didn’t seem that loud – possibly as some of this would have been created by my own shouting (this generated over 90 dB L_Aeq,T – although I did not shout continuously over the entire duration).

Conclusions

1) Converting my noise exposure of 96 dB L_Aeq,T to a yearly average (assuming 365 days) equates to 65 dB L_Aeq,24h. This is only 5 dB below the recommended annual limit – so I will need to be mindful of further noisy leisure activities that I attend over the next 12 months!

Not all rugby matches will be as vigorously loud as the world cup final, and I wouldn’t usually be in a stadium for that amount of time. Using the average noise level for the time period from 12:00 to 14:30 that covered the New Zealand v France match (93 dB L_Aeq,T), this converts to a yearly average value of 57 dB L_Aeq,24h. Assuming this is more typical of the rugby union matches I attend (Northampton Saints or Loughborough Lightnings), this indicates that I could attend up to 20 matches per year at this magnitude before the recommended 70 dB L_Aeq,24h yearly average is exceeded. However this does not take into account exposure from other leisure activities.

Clearly more research is needed so I’ll need to wear the dosemeter at more rugby matches…

2) The Red Roses kick ass!

Further to the recent post about St Sidwell’s Point, we’ve also added Spring Wood Lodge to our list of example projects

Spring Wood Lodge, in Guisley, Leeds, provides a rehabilitation recovery centre for women over the age of 18 requiring an integrated treatment approach. The facility has a nine bed and a twelve bed ward and had permission for a new extension to include six bedrooms along with ensuites, lounge, nurse station, clinic, sluice, office, de-escalation room, bathroom and other ancillary and circulation spaces…

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WBM is pleased to include this project to our portfolio.
St Sidwell’s Point, Exeter

St Sidwell’s Point was commissioned by Exeter City Council and designed by S&P Architects integrated design team and is the UK’s first Passivhaus leisure centre. The £42M four-floor centre is located in Exeter city centre and accommodates three swimming pools, a 100 seat spectator area, three studios, a fitness gym, a large premium health and beauty spa (GAIA Spa), a crèche and a café, together with an external landscaped terrace on the upper floor overlooking the city…

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WBM is pleased to provide the following updates on two of our recent projects.

London Borough of Hounslow School Expansion
The London Borough of Hounslow and Pick Everard used WBM’s acoustic expertise to help them deliver the first phase of a multi-million pound expansion programme on ten primary and SEN schools between 2013 and 2015. The schools are in the vicinity of Heathrow Airport and exposed to elevated levels of aircraft noise. WBM provided the design team with professional architectural acoustic consultancy services from inception to completion of the projects (read more…)

Kingston Library in Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes Council commissioned WBM to carry out an acoustic assessment and testing of a new library in Milton Keynes. There are no mandatory acoustic standards for this type of building so WBM used appropriate performance requirements from guidance documents as design aims (read more…)

Congratulations to Odeon Cinemas Limited on completion of their new 7 screen multiplex cinema at Fort Kinnaird Shopping Centre, Edinburgh’s largest retail park located in a highly prominent position adjacent the Newcraighall junction of the A1.

WBM are delighted to have been involved with this project, providing Odeon’s Architects (McFarlane Latter) and design team with professional architectural acoustic consultancy services from inception to completion of the project in March 2015. (read more…)